This first chapter has thus taught us the divine aspect of the
christian position, given to the apostle for the instruction, in the
last days, of believers from among the circumcision. The next two
chapters set before us, on the other hand, the two forms of evil
that characterise the last days -- the false and corrupt teaching of
bad men, and the unbelief which denies the return of the Lord on the
ground of the stability of the visible creation. The former really
denies the Master who bought them. It is no question here as to the
title of the Lord, nor of redemption. The simile is of a master who
has purchased slaves at the market, and they disown and refuse to
obey him. Thus among the converted Jews there would be false
teachers, who disowned the authority of Christ -- His rights over
them. Many would be led away by them; and as they bore the name of
Christians, the way of truth would be brought into disrepute by
their means; while in fact, by their covetousness and hypocritical
words, they would make merchandise of Christians for their private
gain, count them as mere instruments of it. But the resource of
faith is always in God. Judgment would overtake them. The examples
of the fallen angels, of Noah and the deluge, of Lot and Sodom,
proved that the Lord knew how to deliver the righteous out of their
trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for the day of judgment. That
which would characterise this class of evildoers would be the
unbridled license of their conduct. They would indulge their carnal
lusts, and despise all authority in a way that angels would not dare
to do. Still they would call themselves Christians and associate
with Christians in their love-feasts, deceiving their own hearts,
addicting themselves continually to evil, promising liberty to
others, but themselves the slaves of corruption. Now, to be thus
re-entangled in evil, after having escaped it through the knowledge
of the Lord and Saviour, was worse than if they had never known
anything of the way of truth. But it was according to the true
proverb -- The dog had returned to his own vomit, and the sow that
had been washed, to her wallowing in the mire. They were apostates
therefore; but here the Spirit of God does not so much point out the
apostasy as the evil, because the government of God is still in
view. In Jude the apostasy is the prominent thing. Peter tells us
that the angels sinned; Jude, that they kept not their first
estate. But God will judge the wicked.